Surgical instruments in Greek and Roman times / by John Stewart Milne.

  • Milne, John Stewart, 1871-
Date:
1907
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Surgical instruments in Greek and Roman times / by John Stewart Milne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    its use in opening quinsy, in a chapter copied from Leonidas: ' If the patient be adult make him sit down, and, opening his mouth, depress the tongue with a spatula or a tongue depressor, and open the abscess with a scalpel or katias' (afitkapuo rj KaTLabi), Paul says that abscess of the womb is to be exposed with a speculum and opened with a scalpel or katias (cnra0£a> r) Kariabi). Paul also refers to it in perforating the foetal cranium in delivery obstructed through hydrocephaly (tto\v7Tlk(i) o-ttclOlu) t) KaOiabi 77 a-KoXoirofxaxaLpiia) (VI. lxxiv). These somewhat scanty materials, summed up, give us the following results. We find the instrument used for opening the chorion, opening abscess of the womb, perforating the foetal cranium, drawing blood from the inside of the nose, and opening abscess of the tonsil. It cannot have been a needle, as Adams and Cornarius translate it, as some of these applications (e. g. perforating the foetal cranium) could not have been performed with a needle. The uses to which the instrument was put correspond very closely to the uses of the phlebotome, and from this and from the etymological significance of the word I am inclined to think that if it is not identical with the phlebotome it is at least only a variety of that instrument, with a handle longer than usual in order to adapt it for uterine and intranasal operations. Spathion and HemispatMon. Greek, a-nadiov (diminutive of cr-naOr]), fjiuo-nadLov ; Latin, spatha. On several occasions a knife called <nra6iov is mentioned. Paul (VI. lxxiii) says of abscess of the womb : ' When the abscess is explored, if it is soft (and this may be ascertained by touching it with the finger) it is to be opened with a spathion or a needle knife' (o-nad(u> rj KanaSi). Again, Paul (VI. lxxviii) says : Find the orifice of the fistula, pass an ear probe through